While the Apple App Store currently offers excellent apps for working out, developers haven’t integrated those apps with iOS the way they have with music, email, and maps. Until now.聽
Many reputable Apple-related news outlets, including 9to5Mac, 鈥攁 health and fitness tracking feature鈥攚hen it releases iOS 8 later this year.
According to recreated screenshots published by 9to5Mac, the app will use cards鈥攕imilar to the iPhone’s existing Passbook application鈥攖o track metrics like bloodwork, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, oxygen saturation, and weight.聽
While many current apps focus on fitness activity or weight and diet management, Apple seems poised to combine those features. It’s not hard to see why a native iOS app that combines the utilities of multiple of its competitors聽could put other fitness trackers out of business.
Apple also made a few notable hires鈥擩ay Blahnik, Dr. Michael O’Reilly, and Roy Raymann鈥攍ast year that have fueled Healthbook rumors. Blahnik is a who helped companies such as Nike expand into fitness tech. Reilly , which measure oxygen saturation, and is likely contributing his expertise to the Healthbook team as well. Raymann is a who previously worked for Philips.
As with any Apple rumor, the Healthbook news comes with lots of questions and a huge caveat鈥攖his could all be speculation. For one, we’re not exactly sure where the iPhone will draw the data for Healthbook鈥攑ossibilities include the iPhone itself, third-party apps, third-party devices, or the long-rumored iWatch.
Speaking of watches, if you’re looking to get your hands on some cutting-edge fitness tech before Apple releases the still-mythical Healthbook, look no further than the company’s largest competitor. Google has beaten Apple to the fitness tech punch with its Android Wear, a new watch software.聽
罢丑别听 covers four key features of the new software, one of which is the “ability to better monitor your health and fitness.” The other capabilities relate to speedy information access, an easy-to-use voice control interface, and cross-device operational abilities. Like the Android operating system, Android Wear will run on watches developed by other companies, like Motorola and LG. Motorola will release its Android Wear-supporting watch, , this summer.
Android Wear promises to help you “hit your exercise goals with reminders and fitness summaries.” But its features don’t exactly parallel Apple’s, with the blog post suggesting that “your favorite fitness apps” will continue to provide you with your health data.
This raises a big question. After hearing the latest Apple news, is Google now hard at work developing its own native fitness hub for its mobile devices?